YORKTOWN —It was not according to the plan, but the goal was achieved.
Mt. Vernon’s boys golf team won the school’s first-ever Hoosier Heritage Conference championship Saturday at The Players Club at Woodland Trails.
The Marauders’ score was nowhere near what they expected would be enough to win the title, but when everything was tabulated, Mt. Vernon sat atop the leaderboard among the eight competing league schools.
“It was one of our goals. It wasn’t quite how we wanted to do it, but we’ll take it,” Mt. Vernon head coach Tom Kirby said.
“It means a lot,” Mt. Vernon senior Sam McWilliams said. “It’s really awesome to be the first team to get the conference (championship) for Mt. Vernon, which was something I didn’t actually know (until Saturday) that we had never won it.”
With only six strokes separating the first four teams, Mt. Vernon’s total of 335 was one shot better than Yorktown (336). New Castle was third (339) and Delta (341) finished fourth.
New Palestine wasn’t too far behind, placing fifth with a 347. Other team scores were: Pendleton Heights 369, Greenfield-Central 372 and Shelbyville 377.
“It’s huge for the fact that no one from Mt. Vernon has got this,” Kirby added, noting that the back of the conference’s traveling trophy has a list of past winners. “It had all the winners back to (the 1990s), and the boys were looking down at it and said, ‘We’ve never won this.’”
“It’s eye opening to them that this is something special and something special to Mt. Vernon,” Kirby added.
The Marauders first-year head coach said he thought it would take a 320 to win, so he and his guys were a little disappointed when their 18-hole rounds were completed.
“We were pretty surprised, just because, overall as a team, we didn’t play too great,” said McWilliams, the team’s No. 1 player. “I guess, that was just the type of day it was, and that was enough to get it done.”
McWilliams finished tied for second with a 3-over-par 75. New Castle’s Derek Tabor was the individual winner with a 4-under-par 68.
A key for the Marauders was the play of No. 3 golfer Kyran Maxfield. He had just been reinserted into the team’s lineup. He had only played in a couple of tournaments this season.
Maxfield finished with an 82, second best on the team.
“This was only his third high school tournament,” McWilliams added. “That was pretty big for us as a team score. It really helped. (Players Club) is a tough course and that was just his third time out there. He really stepped up.”
No. 2, Aden Cappelletti finished with an 88. Asher Cotton followed with a 90, as the final count for the team score. Dylan Dreiman carded a 100.
“We kept stressing to each of our players to keep plugging away because you never know,” Kirby said. “Quite frankly, throughout the day, we really thought we had blown this and were going to get beat by 15 or 20 strokes. I was as surprised as anybody when I turned in my scores.”
Afterwards, the Marauders seemed equally surprised not to find their name on the HHC trophy.
“I think before we looked on the back (coach Kirby) said something about first time in school history, I almost didn’t believe it at first, even though I didn’t know,” McWilliams said. “After looking at the back of (the trophy) and seeing all the people that had won it, sure enough, Mt. Vernon wasn’t on there.”
New Palestine was led by Matt Barada. He finished fifth with a 79. Braeden Baker shot an 85.
For Greenfield-Central, Tyler Young led the way with an 85. Josh Alley finished with an 86.
Even though it wasn’t their best day, Saturday was the Marauders’ day.
“I wasn’t aware what anyone else was shooting,” McWilliams added on Saturday’s round. “I just know the people I am playing with, which is why you just have to do the best you can to make every shot count. You don’t know which shot is going to be the one to decide.
“I was surprised (we won). I don’t think coach or anyone on the team thought we had put up a good enough score to come out on top. It goes to show you, those days you have to grind it out no matter what because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
